Audience Questions

Audience QuestionsHour 1

The Kindle doesn't use WiFi. The older Kindle's use wireless via Sprint that is always on and available forever. He could also email PDFs of eBooks to the owner's Kindle address and it'll be converted and downloaded to the Kindle. It is possible to install eBooks via USB connection, though. He needs to convert the books to the MOBI format, and there are a number of good free programs like Calibre. They'll also need to associate the Kindle to an existing account, which will happen when he turns on the Kindle for the first time.

Chris is wondering whether or not the USB external drive connected to his Mac Mini is causing it to boot up so slow. Leo says it probably is, and he recommends choosing StartUp disk in the settings so it'll boot up directly by the SSD. He should also try disconnecting the USB drives before booting up. The Mac Mini may be scanning the drives to mount them first when booting up.

Tony works for a security firm and he wants to mirror the data of a hard drive onto a RAID. Leo says the first thing Tony should do is clone the drive since it's a very important drive to his job. Drive's will eventually die, so it's vital for Tony, or anyone for that matter, to clone the drive to back it up. Hard drives usually come with utilities for this purpose. EaseUS has a great imaging utility for that. Once that's done, save the original drive in a safe place and then use the cloned drive moving forward. Then, he can move onto backup solutions like a RAID.

Leo thinks that "RAID 1" (which will write the same data to multiple drives) may not be the ideal solution for Tony. He should get a RAID 5 enclosure (known as Network Attached Storage or RAID 5) that he can insert multiple drives into for backup. If one drive fails, he can replace it and the enclosure will rebuild itself. Leo likes ReadyNAS and Synoloogy.

He wouldn't even really need to create the clone of the drive if he copies the data on the NAS and uploads it to the cloud. Then he'll have 3 copies, which is quite safe.

Audience QuestionsHour 2

Adam is looking to get a new LG 5500, but it only has two HDMI ports? Leo says that budget HDTVs usually only have a couple of HDMI ports. He recommends that if you need more, to get an A/V receiver like the Onkyo 616, which includes 7 HDMI ins, and Denon makes a great one as well.

Mike uses POP3 to get his email on his Google Nexus 7 Android tablet, but he doesn't get all his unread email. Leo says that it could be another email client is downloading messages and taking them off the server.

If that isn't the issue, Leo says that using gmail to collect all the pop3 email and then accessing it via gmail on his Android tablet may be the best option. Leo also likes IMAP better, because it leaves all the mail on the server. The Mercury Mail app that Mike has also may have a messed up configuration.

Daniel got one of the last Pioneer Kuro Plasma HDTVs. He's thinking about getting another plasma, but is worried that they're going away. Leo says Pioneer got out, and Panasonic is having trouble. Sharp borrowed money to stay afloat. The industry isn't doing too well right now. If he's going to get one, Leo likes the Panasonic VT50. The plasma isn't out yet, but it'll likely become a niche, high end product.

Chris has a family tree book in PDF format that she wants to distribute to the family. Leo says having a print on demand service handle the distribution would be the best option. Lulu started this idea, but Amazon's CreateSpace is the best option because it'll also handle eBook sales as well as hard backs. The beauty is, there's no waste and people with Kindle's can download it as well. It can also be available on iPads. Amazon will handle MOBI and ePub formats, so people can use either Apple's iBooks, or the Kindle Reader. Family members can also order hard backs if they'd like.

Dwight is a voiceover artist for a new newsreading app called Umano. He applied, interviewed, was hired and is paid online. He is using the Blue Yeti which is the best mic for his work, but sometimes he gets static feedback in his headphones. Leo says that isn't supposed to happen and there's a short circuit in the mic which is sending voltage into the headphones. He recommends sending it back to Blue for repair or replacement. It's possible that it may just be static electricity, but if it's ongoing, then there's a faulty ground or short and it should be repaired before it causes injury.

Audience QuestionsHour 3

Christine has written a book and she went to CreateSpace, where she published in both paperback and Kindle eBook. She says that it's important to be precise in revisions and instructions to editors. But now that she's published her book, how does she get the word out and market it? She has a website, blog, Facebook fanpage, and store. Leo says it will help to link all of them so she can update easier. Does she need a publisher? Leo says not really. The online stuff that Christine has already done will work. Having Facebook pages for all her characters is a good idea, and why not have all of her characters have Twitter accounts and have them tweet interesting things?

Leo says this is becoming very popular in restaurants, movie theaters, etc. Many are connected to networked MacMini's which can then be switched on a dime. Many companies do this including 9X Media, A10, and Matrox all specialize in video walls and multiple displays.

Mark says that Norton anti virus on Windows 8 allowed a web search toolbar (called SearchUS.com) to get on Internet Explorer and it's been a pain in the neck to get rid of. Leo says that while it did happen, it's not really Microsoft's fault. They control 95% of the market and that makes it a huge target. Since it could have come with something else he installed, Mark may have accidentally installed it. Viruses can't get installed unless the user runs some sort of program to trigger them. Just having data can't really do it. It may be a security flaw in IE 10 that allowed it, though. Microsoft has learned a lot since the early days and has done a tremendous amount to combat malware. When they control that much of the market, they become a very popular target.

Leo suggests starting fresh. He should back up his data, format the drive and reinstall the OS from a known, good source. In fact, Windows 8 has a refresh OS feature that will wipe everything and reinstall at the touch of a button.

This Week in Tech News

Samsung announced the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge today. The new phone includes an octacore Samsung Exynos processor (for the international version); 5.1-inch QHD Super AMOLED displays; 3GB of RAM; 32, 64, or 128GB of internal storage; 16-megapixel cameras with optical image stabilization; a new fingerprint sensor in the home button that no longer requires a swipe; an infrared heart-rate monitor that Samsung says also helps the camera obtain accurate white balance; integrated support for both Qi and PMA wireless charging; fast USB charging that’s 1.5 times faster than the Galaxy S5; a speaker that’s 1.5 times louder than the S5’s; and integrated support for Samsung Pay, which uses either NFC or MFT (LoopPay) technology for transactions. The S6 also has some notable changes including no interchangable battery, no waterproofing, and no microSD card slot. That means the storage capability is limited to 128GB models, and more or less forces users to buy more storage models in order to get more space.

Apple sent out invitations for an event in San Francisco on March 9 called "Spring Forward." We expect to get more details including pricing and availability of the Apple Watch. The event will be streamed live.

The FCC this week voted 3-2 to reclassify broadband providers as telecommunications companies. This gives the FCC the ability to regulate the internet. The FCC has tried to regulate internet service providers, but was thwarted by lawsuits. The courts agreed that the FCC had no right to regulate them unless they were telecommunications companies, not information companies. After considerable debate and 4 million comments to the FCC website, the FCC voted on Thursday to reclassify internet service providers as telecommunications companies.

Citizenfour is an Academy Award winning documentary on the story of Edward Snowden. He was a contractor for the NSA as a systems administrator working out of Hawaii, and that's how he was able to obtain information. What he did with that information is what became so controversial. He went to Hong Kong, and contacted journalists to give them this information he had collected, but didn't want anything released that would risk the lives of government operatives. Instead, he wanted journalists to tell the world, Americans in particular, what the NSA had been up to.

Edward Snowden's actions may be controversial, but what is not controversial is the material itself that had been leaked. It's Leo's opinion that he's done a very important thing -- he took something that was done in secret, without the permission of the American people, and brought that information to the forefront so we can have a national discussion about it.

Leonard Nimoy, known for playing "Spock" in Star Trek, passed away at the age of 83 on Friday morning. He died of end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He announced he had the disease last year, attributing it to his years of smoking decades prior.